Why do we use offshore drilling

Toxic Pollution: Normal offshore drilling operations release toxic pollution into the air and water. Exploration and drilling at the platform, transportation via tankers, and refining the oil on land can all release volatile organic compounds, greenhouse gases, and other air pollutants.

A Risk to Animals: Wherever there are oil spills and excess pollutants, wildlife is risk. Here in the Bay watershed, even a small oil spill could devastate the blue crab population by killing its larvae. It would also poison and debilitate oysters, fish, seabirds, marine mammals, and other wildlife. A Risk to Nature: A major spill could devastate wetlands, beaches, and mudflats.

This problem will only get worse for the Chesapeake Bay and all those who live in the region: Heavier rainfall and more intense storms, due in part to climate change, lead to more polluted runoff, threatening the progress made so far in reducing pollution to the Bay. Warmer waters hold less dissolved oxygen, exacerbating fish-killing dead zones and contributing to algal blooms.

How Offshore Drilling Threatens Our Local Economy Coastal communities across the region rely on clean water and safe waterways for food, industry, recreation, and more. Industries at Risk: When offshore drilling is introduced into a region, it jeopardizes commercial fishing, recreation, and tourist economies. The jobs brought in by oil companies will not replace the jobs lost by the effects of offshore drilling.

The impact will be felt for generations. Opportunities Lost: By investing imprudently in dangerous fossil fuels, we are missing the opportunity to invest in building an industry around renewables like wind and solar to create sustainable power and sustainable jobs.

Oil production off the Atlantic coast has raised concerns from the Department of Defense because of potential conflicts with military operations.

How YOU Can Help Stop Offshore Drilling Offshore drilling poses unacceptable risks to communities throughout the watershed, our economies, marine life, and our environment. If companies drill in new places, it will take 10 years or more from leasing until the oil reaches the market. First there is a lengthy process of planning for a lease sale, bidding, applying for and obtaining approvals, followed by exploration for viable well sites and production.

The U. As energy efficiency continues to improve and the renewable energy sector grows there is no need to threaten coastal ecosystems with more dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. A decision to expand offshore drilling today would put in motion decades of production of fossil fuels that contribute to climate change — risking human health and our clean coasts in the process.

We should invest in a better future. Large-scale oil spills tend to capture public attention, but smaller leaks and spills regularly pollute our waters.

Spills can occur at every phase of offshore development including during exploratory drilling, production and transportation. Technologies for cleaning up oil spills have remained largely unchanged since the Exxon Valdez spill in the late s, and are generally ineffective.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout caused one of the worst manmade environmental catastrophes in history. This disaster killed 11 rig workers, spilled over million gallons of oil, fouled at least 1, miles of Gulf shoreline, endangered public health, and killed tens of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins and fish. This disaster revealed serious inadequacies in safety, regulation and oversight in the offshore oil drilling industry.

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